The latest version of Microsoft Virtual PC lets you run applications installed on your virtual Windows XP Mode in Windows 7 without loading the whole operating system in the background. In this guide you’ll learn:

How to turn on Auto Publish to view programs on Windows 7’s start menu.

If you get to the end of this guide and still have questions about Windows Virtual PC or XP Mode, please ask them in the Windows 7 forum.

How to Turn on Auto Publish to View Programs on Windows 7’s Start Menu

Auto Publish is an integration feature of Windows Virtual PC that adds the programs installed on the virtual machine to the host machine’s start menu. By default, this feature is enabled for Windows XP Mode, but to verify so you can follow the rest of the guide:

How to Run Windows XP Mode Applications in Windows 7

For this example, I’ll use Office 95 (seems like a good candidate for use with Windows XP (although it will work in Windows 7), but for this guide we’ll pretend we had to use XP Mode to get it working :)

Once you install Microsoft Office 95, you’ll see the shortcuts appear on the XP Start menu…

…and on the Windows 7 host machine’s start menu.

This happens because any shortcuts for programs in the All Users folder are automatically put on Windows 7’s start menu. But what if a program doesn’t appear in the Start menu or programs appear that you don’t want in the start menu? Learn how to fix these potential issues below (How to Add XP Mode Programs to Windows 7’s Start Menu.)

If you click to open a program and have Windows XP Mode running, you’ll be asked to exit XP Mode. Click Continue.

The application will launch:

You’ll be able to work with the program seamlessly as if it were a Windows 7 application:

How to Add XP Mode Programs to Windows 7’s Start Menu

If you install a program in Windows XP Mode and it doesn’t show on Windows 7’s start menu (like it did in the example above):

1. Click the Windows XP Mode Start button, right click All Programs, and click Open all Users/Explore All Users.

3. Copy the shortcut, which you want to appear in Windows 7, from the folder opened in step 2 to the folder opened in step 1.

4. Now go to Windows 7 and verify the shortcut exists.

How to Exclude XP Mode Programs from Windows 7’s Start Menu

If you want certain programs excluded (or default programs, like the somewhat classic calculator, included) you’ll need to add/remove registry entries from the exclude list. If you are unfamiliar with registry editing, follow this guide and then come back.